When Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death in an Arctic gulag was announced in the media on Feb. 16, none of the public eulogies, outside a few religious outlets, included Mr. Navalny’s conversion from atheism to Christianity. He had spoken explicitly—although infrequently—about how his religious faith influenced his activism. He acknowledged it might earn him mockery from his opposition compatriots. A similar embarrassment may be behind the omission of his beliefs in the retrospectives on his life’s work.
His letters from prison to the former Soviet prisoner of conscience Natan Sharansky are peppered with biblical, religious and spiritual allusions. “Where else to spend Holy Week,” Mr. Navalny wrote to Mr. Sharansky, “if not in [solitary confinement]!” Mr. Navalny cites Ecclesiastes at one point, and signs off another letter to the Jewish Sharansky, “L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim,” “Next year in Jerusalem,” a traditional Passover greeting. By leaving out his faith in a creed that believes in redemptive suffering, media coverage summing up his life’s work misses a key part of what made his opposition to Vladimir Putin so powerful.
Source: America Magazine
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